The Hippodrome was remodeled and renamed the Wabash in 1948, according to an item in Boxoffice, October 2 that year, which said the house had recently opened. Currently, the theater’s official web site gives 1949 as the year the Wabash opened.

The July 24, 1948, issue of Boxoffice had said that the remodeling was to cost about $250,000. The renovated house was to be operated as a first-run theater by Fourth Avenue Amusement Company, a Louisville-based circuit then operating several theaters in Kentucky and Indiana. The item also said that the Hippodrome had been dark for years.

A June 4, 1940, Boxoffice item mentions a Wabash Theatre in Terre Haute, operated by J.B. Stine. As later Boxoffice items mentioned the Hippodrome being renamed the Wabash in 1948, either this must have been a different theater, or Boxoffice made an error. Stine is most often mentioned in Boxoffice as the operator of the Garfield Theatre in Terre Haute.